Eric Schmidt Selling $1.45 Billion Worth of Google Stock

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is selling some of his Google stock to the tune of approximately $1.45 billion. This will reduce his ownership of Google from 2.8 percent to 2.1 percent.

A regulatory filing shows that Schmidt started the stock trading in November, and plans to sell up to 2.4 million shares. To avoid a market impact, the stock will be traded over a period of one year. As of Friday afternoon, Google’s stock has fallen 3.3 percent compared to one year ago. The stocks have, however, risen slightly over the last three months.

Schmidt had been Google’s chief executive for 10 years before co-founder Larry Page took over the job in April.

Is this a simple case of Schmidt diversifying his assets, or is he worried about the future market strength of Google? If he just making sure he doesn’t have all his eggs in one basket, why didn’t he do this before? Only time will tell how Google fairs in the global economy. Let us know your opinion in the comments.

Emily is a Canadian who now lives in Dallas, Texas. She came south of the border to pursue her violin career, and study at Indiana University, Bloomington. She continued her journey south to University of North Texas. Emily doesn’t like to admit that she was prancing around in her own little iPhone 3G bubble, until her husband decided it was time to wake up and join Google’s Rebel Alliance. She’s never looked back. She now spends countless hours playing with her Android phone and tablet. Emily plays violin in several orchestras in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and also teaches violin lessons. She is happy to be writing for TalkAndroid.

millgate

Perhaps he fancies a few islands in the Sun.

Good move Eric – I hope you enjoy what you’ve earned.

Emily Aquin

Let’s hope that’s exactly why he did it!

Anonymous

Morningstar StockInvestor had rated this as a strong buy. It was basically the only one they saw last month. Unfortunately this explains why the stock has been selling at a low P/E ratio – lack of confidence ensues when a chairman sells stock